In the age of Internet of Things, it is still an eye for an eye world. After a Princeton paper predicted the demise of Facebook by 2017 by when 80 percent of its user would have taken flight, Facebook took a dig and presented, in a funny and crazy way, how Princeton University might be marching on its way to doom.
Data scientists of the social media network, currently valued at $140 billion, followed a "correlation equals causation" approach and screamed "back at you Princeton" with their conclusion. Complete with graphs, which the majority of its users will either not care about or will fail to understand, Facebook showed how Princeton will reach its flatline by 2021.
"Of particular interest was the innovative use of Google search data to predict engagement trends, instead of studying the actual engagement trends. Using the same robust methodology featured in the paper, we attempted to find out more about this 'Princeton University' -- and you won't believe what we found," wrote Facebook data scientist Mike Develin in collaboration with colleagues Sean Taylor and Lada Adamic. "...our research unequivocally demonstrated that Princeton may be in danger of disappearing entirely."
The Facebook data scientists checked how Princeton University is doing on its own network. They compared the Likes received by Princeton compared to other Ivy League universities such as Yale and Harvard. Indeed, the plotted data on graphs show how popular Princeton was in 2009 until it took a nosedive mid-2010 and is barely recovering until now. Meanwhile, the other two universities continue to remain very popular with Facebook users.
Using Google Scholar, they tracked the number of journals publishing research papers of Princeton.
"The trend is similarly alarming: since 2009, the percentage of "Princeton" papers in journals has dropped dramatically," Develin pointed out.
Another pie thrown at Princeton face is when Facebook data scientists checked Google Trends and saw how its enrollment will be suffering as correlated to its search scores.
"This trend suggests that Princeton will have only half its current enrollment by 2018, and by 2021 it will have no students at all, agreeing with the previous graph of scholarly scholarliness. Based on our robust scientific analysis, future generations will only be able to imagine this now-rubble institution that once walked this earth," the Facebook post read.
The data scientists of Facebook continued and here is the knockout punch that might send the Princeton paper that has not been peer reviewed yet, reeling:
"Although this research has not yet been peer-reviewed, every Like for this post counts as a peer review," they wrote.
The post has 6,685 likes as of reporting.
While Facebook might be having problems with its declining popularity with teens, the Princeton study might be flawed.
"First, it makes a strained epidemiological analogy comparing Facebook to a "disease" that users eventually "recover" from. Facebook may be a massive drain on our attention that some people get sick of, but that doesn't mean it actually operates like a virus. The researchers then use Myspace as an example of how users recover from a social network and abandon it as if it happened naturally. They make no mention of how Myspace was in fact killed by Facebook," argued Josh Constine of TechCrunch. "But the critical error in the non-peer-reviewed study is stating that since the volume of searches for 'Facebook' began declining in 2012, it must mean there's an ongoing decline in Facebook usage."
